Al-Asha – Dinner
by Mini Goat
Summary: Jon has a heart to heart with Jack about Sammy and Sammy has some opinions about her alter ego and her new friend is a willing listener.
1. Hami - Protector

**_AN:_**_ Bit of a filler story between events. Sammy and Lynn get to know each other better and Sammy gets the chance to finally unload her opinion about Pete and her original self's bad taste in guys. Jon meanwhile has some bombshells of his own to unload. Jon follows through on giving Jack a heads up on the Conner situation among other things. _

**Al-Asha – Dinner**

**Chapter 1 - Hami - Protector**

It was the same diner. Jack had on his wedding ring now that he was actually married instead of Jon running his mouth to spare Jack's feelings. Sadly he didn't see the waitress he'd confronted to rub her nose in it.

"All right. What's bugging you." Jack finally asked Jon after they had ordered. Sam was working so Jack had Grace sitting on the booth seat next to him in her car seat. She was sleeping peacefully. He caught Jon cutting his eyes to her a few times and smiled in amusement. "Finish school first." He told the sixteen year old.

"Huh?"

"Having kids and no education is hard. Finish. School. First." Jack said amused. Arguably Gracie was an extremely pretty baby and even as a kid Jack had liked babies. He especially loved fathering a baby with Sam.

"Oh. No, I was just looking to see what looked like you and what looked like Sam that's all." Jon told him. "Sammy already warned me of my impending doom if I even considered having kids before she had at least one degree first."

"Well that's a relief. Generally it's a good idea to just do whatever Sam says. She might have terrible taste in guys but she's usually right about everything else."

"That doesn't say a lot for us." Jon reminded him.

"We aren't a catch. She's crazy." Jack told Jon with a smile.

"No argument there."

"Why are these conversations always so weird?" Jack mused. "Anyway, what's on your mind. You usually don't ask to see me before our monthly check in."

Jon sighed thoughtfully. "I'm not sure how to word this because I know how we are about it so just… don't freak out ok?"

Jack gave him a hard look. "Spit it out." He said after the waitress had brought their sandwiches.

"All right, there's this kid..."

"I thought you had that under control."

"I do. Jay and I are actually friends now and he's super loyal to Sammy too. Been driving her around even when I'm not with them."

"So, new guy." Jack said around a mouthful of pastrami.

"Yah. How much did Sam tell you about my hockey injury?"

"Well, Sammy called me nearly hysterical, which if that's what goes on in Sam's head every time I was injured or missing, no wonder she was always a wreck when I got home or felt better. Kind of glad I'm flying a desk now even if it does annoy the shit out of me more days than not."

"Like you're any better." Jon told him pointedly.

"Never said I was but I don't stop eating and sleeping."

Jon just looked at him for a long moment. "Ka'kek lo." He told the older man with a sneer.

"Watch your language kid." Jack said but he grinned. It had been a lie. A big one at that. Jack had been known to nearly kill himself trying to save Sam and would willingly do so again if the need arose. "Sam told me how you were injured and that she'd talked Wil and his wife into taking care of you for a few weeks. How is she adjusting by the way? I need to have a meet up with her too probably, just to make sure everything is ok." He left out the part where he'd met up with Wil to try to give him money to cover the expense of caring for a starving teenage boy. Wil had finally taken the money but only to admit he was putting it into a trust for Jon as the government paid his wife a lot of money to play with Sam's toys.

"I wanted to talk to you about that actually. Wil and I kind of think you picked him and his wife intentionally." Jon told Jack thoughtfully. "Just seems too coincidental to be an accident."

"It wasn't. After I talked to Sam and Thor about it Sam and I agreed she needed to be a little younger than you so she'd have time to adjust to the situation and once we realized that, we figured out she'd need parents. When Siler told Walter Wil had applied for fostering right before he retired we didn't think much of it until Walter found out about Sammy and suggested them as a good choice. It wasn't too hard to pull in a few favors to get her placed with them after that."

Jon smiled. "It was a good call. Wil is a great dad and Mary is exactly what she needed. She's smart and kind and rarely pries but she does let you know if she catches you bullshitting her."

Jack laughed. "Sounds like Vala."

"She's got a good team then?" Jon asked.

"Yup. Cam is a bit wet but he'll settle down. Vala was a surprise. She's not from around here. Former host actually."

"You're kidding. Dad's people fix her?" Jon asked referring to Jacob and the Tok'ra

"Well, as fixed as she's going to get. She's a bit crazy but Daniel and Sam like her so she's on the team." He ate a few fries.

Jon nodded. "So anyway it was a good call. I need to thank them because she's never been this emotionally undamaged as far as I've known her."

"Are you saying my wife is a little tense?" Jack asked laughing.

"Is Ba'al a sadistic bastard." Jon replied.

Jack shrugged his hands and tilted his head with a raised eyebrow. "I don't think it's in our best interest to tell her that to her face."

"No. I enjoy living." Jon agreed.

"All right, now that we've gotten making fun of Sam out of our system where were we going with this conversation." Jack asked trying to get them back on track before Grace woke up and ended any attempt to discuss issues.

"Ok so don't freak out. The kid that injured me has said a couple things that have me a little worried."

"Why do I have a bad feeling about this."

"Probably because you know where this is going."

Jack nodded in agreement. He knew his own round about thought process and knew whatever the issue with the kid was it somehow involved Sammy. "Go on." He bit into his sandwich.

"Well…" Jon dragged a fry through some catsup. "Twice that I know of he's threatened her and he always has one of his buddies with him when we have a run in."

"What's their background? Can she take this kid if he gets the jump on her or is something we should be direct about."

"Him she can take. He's a spoiled rich kid that goes to a fancy charter school. I don't know about his buddies. All of them are bigger than her. Wil has her splitting logs to build her upper body strength. Talked her into it in a real slick way too." Jon said with admiration at how Wil had convinced her to take on the task as a trade for money she needed rather than point out that she was going to get her ass kicked if someone restrained her legs.

Jack nodded. The development of her upper body muscles would be a definite advantage. He had no doubt what Jon had meant by 'threaten'. Guys like that went right for the most hurtful way to attack a woman. It wasn't the first time someone had threatened Sam with rape. He doubted it would be the last. Sammy though, was a thirteen year old kid not a muscular woman in her thirties and it would be easy for a kid twice her size to subdue her with his buddy's help.

"What do Wil and Mary say about it?"

"Sammy won't let me tell them." Jon admitted and waited for the inevitable swearing to start.

Surprisingly Jack just glowered for several minutes, trying to get his emotions under control. "Sometimes I really want to dig up Jacob and punch him in the head." Jack finally growled. "She's like this because of how he raised her. Never bother people with your petty little issues." He snarled then savagely bit into his sandwich and chewed it angrily. "She never would have gotten involved with Jonas or Pete if Jacob hadn't drilled that nonsense into her head. She still does it to me too by the way. I usually have to corner her to break through her training."

"Great so that's not going to work. Mary would kick my ass. Got any other suggestions?" Jon thought about what Jack had said. "What happened with Pete?"

"Guy was manipulative and controlling. He might have cared about her but he wanted to change everything about her that made her who she was in the first place. Dress more feminine, stop hanging out with exclusively male coworkers like she had so many options of women to pick from there, play happy homemaker instead of being the brilliant scientist and solder that she is. Give up her position at the mountain and stop training her skills. All he saw was her looks. He definitely didn't see her."

Jon nodded. Jack described a Pete that had tried to erase all the things that made Sam uniquely herself and most of all, the very things Jack loved most about her. The fact that Sam could out shoot, out think and out fly Jack had been a huge turn on. Without those she was just another pretty blond no different than thousands of other women. Pete was a shrub. What kind of weak male takes a work of art and tries to turn it into a copy of mass produced nothing.

"Anyway you have to get her to tell them. She shouldn't be going to piano practice by herself or anywhere else for that matter." Jack growled. "If she won't tell them about the threats tell her I will. "She'll know I mean it."

Jon nodded. Sammy didn't have a hold over Jack the way she did Jon. He wasn't invested in the same way. "Her piano teacher is only two blocks from school. I'll talk to coach about letting me be late on the Wednesdays he schedules practice so I can drive her. If she won't talk to them we'll handle it. Jay can pick her up and take her home if practice isn't over yet."

"That's better than nothing I guess. You still need to tell her I'm going to tell them if she won't. Danny and Sam would kill me otherwise." Jack admitted.

"Not T?"

"You know damn well he's more into staring at you until you break."

Jon chuckled. "I should get going soon. Mary and Wil are having me over for dinner. Sammy made a new friend and she has a messed up home life. We're trying to draw her out to see how bad it is before we make any moves on how to handle it."

"Either of you met this girl's parents yet?"

"Working on it. She seems really reluctant to let anyone come over which is a big red flag. Sammy is trying to get her to talk."

"All right. Keep me in the loop. Go with your plan for now until she admits there's a problem."

"I will." Jon got up and leaned over Grace and gave her a soft kiss on her fuzzy little head. "Be good princess." He murmured against her soft pale skin.

Jack grinned. "That spoiled little potato does what she wants."

"Well. Look who her parents are." Jon replied with a chuckle, took a last drag off his glass of soda and waived at Jack as he left.

Jack grinned down at his daughter. "Those two won't last more than a year before she needs to be on birth control just like your mommy." And thank goodness she had been. He wasn't sure if it was his genetics or just their crazy luck that the only time they had gone without protection she'd gotten pregnant. "You'd be four years old if I'd asked mommy to marry me when I reset my grandma's sapphire for her." He told the little girl when she opened her eyes. She gurgled companionably. It had worked out all right.


	2. Gribe - Alien

_**AN: **__On to Sammy and Lynn_

**Gribe - Alien**

Sammy and Lynn were sitting on the floor in the back of an empty class room after school. It was too cold to hang out outside and Jay was running late for reasons he would not explain. "Hey so do you know Lori?"

"Sophomore, dark hair, super cute in a pixie kind of way?"

"That's her."

"Yup. She's nice as far as I know, we had all different classes in Jr. High so I didn't get a chance to know her. Why?" Lynn asked curious.

"No reason. She's a friend of Jay's and he's trying to fix her up with Brian. "

"I take it by the way you said it, that idea is fizzling."

"At first he seemed to really like her and they apparently talk a lot but it's starting to look awfully platonic."

Lynn shrugged, not sure why Sammy was dragging her into this. "Happens." She said noncommittally.

"Yah. They might be too much alike or something. I don't really get how relationships work honestly."

Lynn gave her a side eye and left that one alone. I'm not touching that with someone else's stick she decided. "Hey did you hear Mr. Griswold's wife is going to have another baby?" Lynn asked strategically changing the subject.

"No! Seriously? Don't they already have four kids?" she asked in amused shock.

"No idea but I know it's more than two. You suppose anyone told them how that keeps happening?" she laughed.

Sammy laughed with her. "He should take Mrs. Swanson's sex-ed class." She giggled.

"Do you think he'd be offended if we bought him a box of condoms and demonstrated on a carrot?"

"Oh my god." Sammy said and doubled over laughing.

"What are you two evil witches cackling about? I can hear you all the way down the hall." Brian asked poking his head in the otherwise empty room.

"Mr. Griswold's wife is pregnant again and we were wondering if he knew how to use a condom." Sammy admitted between giggles and noticed Brian wasn't looking at her while she explained. Oh. Well. That's interesting she decided.

"You guys are goofy. They might want a baseball team." He said grinning. "Why are you hiding in here anyways?"  
"Jay is running late."

"Jay got detention."

Sammy jumped up. "That liar! I knew he wasn't telling me something. What did he get detention for?"

"It's classified." He told her smugly.

"I have CS4 level clearance. You can tell me anything but where the aliens are being hidden." Sammy told him in a dead serious voice.

"It was aliens."

"I knew it! I knew Jay was an alien!" Sammy gloated and Lynn and Brian cracked up.

"Next thing you know they will show up and try to convert us to some crazy new religion." Lynn said.

"Nah it will be body snatchers where they invade your brain and take over the world." Brian decided.

Sammy bit her lip hard. If they only knew. "Have you seen that show Wormhole X-Treme!?" since Martin was using actual events as source material should anyone put two and two together and come up with holy crap aliens!

"Oh my god that show is a riot! It's so campy but I love it. The science is just all over the place though"

Sammy put her head down and smirked then sucked on her lip trying not to say anything.

Brian nodded enthusiastically. "I keep trying to get Jon to watch it with me but he says his life is weird enough whatever that means."

Oh god what have I done Sammy thought. "He likes Star Wars better." She told him.

"He knows every line to every movie." Brian agreed.

"Well, an old friend of his was kind of obsessed and it just kind of stuck. I'm more a Trek fan myself."

"No shocker there." Brian said dryly. "Hey I have to go. My dad is picking me up so we can go shopping for my mom's birthday gift."

"Cool. Have fun." Sammy told him.

"Bye Brian." Lynn said.

"Later." His eyes lingered on Lynn for a moment and he left.

Sammy looked at Lynn thoughtfully.

"What?" she finally asked at her blond friend's scrutiny.

"Nothin." Sammy said, sounding suspiciously like Jon when she said it. "Want to come over and hang out tonight? Aunt Mary is making Kielbasa and fried cabbage. And she baked a cake because she knew Jon was coming." The last part she said rather smugly.

"Sure. What time?" Her mom had bowling so as long as she was home before her, there was no issue.

"Do you need to go home after school today?"

"Not especially."

"Cool. Once Jay the jail bird is out of detention he can just drive us both to my house. I'll have uncle Wil drive you home after dinner."

"That works. I can ask Jon to tutor me in algebra over dinner too."

"You still haven't asked him?" Sammy bonked her lightly on the head. "You aren't going to improve at stuff if you're afraid to ask for help you know."

"Says the girl who is literally good at everything." Lynn groused.

"Says the girl that literally practices endlessly at everything so no one notices she's NOT good at everything."

"Name one thing you aren't good at." Lynn demanded.

"Art. Cooking. Remembering to eat."

"I said one." Lynn said laughing as Jay finally walked in.

"Oh hey Bandit. How was the pokey?" Sammy asked him affably.

"That's going to stick isn't it." Jay said morosely.

"So what did you do time for this time Beauregard?"

"You have the most random pop culture knowledge Pipsqueek. If you must know it wasn't even my fault this time."

"Spill it or I tell Jon about the thing."

"You wouldn't dare."

"Try me. What did you do." She demanded as they walked to his car having left the building while discussing his new nick name.

"I might have 'accidently' gotten paint on one of the bikes." He said referencing Karen and her friends who none of them bothered to even bother learning their names.

"JAY! Leave those idiots alone!" Lynn objected. She didn't want her nemesis having a reason to make her life miserable. She had enough issues.

"But it's fun." He told her with a shrug as they drove back to Sammy's.

"You staying for dinner Jay?"

"Can't."

"Let me guess…"

"Do you even need to?"

"What am I missing?" Lynn asked.

"My dad is a piece of work. He's one of those bonzo in your face sales guys for a big corporation. Suit. Tie. Attitude. Runs around on my mom though I can't prove that one. I can't wait to graduate and get the hell away from him honestly."

"Yah. I know how that feels." Lynn said softly from the back seat.

Sammy cut her eyes to Jay's and they shared a short sharp nod. "At least you get your pick of schools out of it."

"Well yah. I think mom will leave him once I'm done with school. I don't know why she bothers. The only thing he loves besides money is himself." Jay said bitterly.

Lynn looked at the back of his head curiously. Sammy caught her speculative look when she turned in her seat to talk to her again and Lynn quickly switched to an impassive expression.

"Oh look… I collect the emotionally stunted Sammy thought to herself. "Jay's mom is super nice and has superior taste in art. I should see if Jack will sell me a piece to give her."

"I love the one he gave Mare and Wil." Jay told her. "He's really talented. Mom would love it, especially as he's a local artist. Is he still planning to retire?"

"He was but his superior is retiring now so he's being promoted first." She said frowning.

"What's wrong with that?"

"The job is in Washington." She sighed.

He was about to remind her that Washington was only two states away when he remembered what Jack did for a living. "Oh. What is your aunt going to do?"

"Rejoin her old team apparently. They have a couple new people now to fill in the empty slots. I met them over Christmas."

"Am I missing something?" Lynn asked in confusion.

"Jon's uncle Jack married Sammy's aunt last year. They worked together at the Cheyenne base. Deep radar something. Anyway, she switched bases so they could get married because she kind of accidently got pregnant so they pretty much had to admit at that point that the rumors about them were true. Anyway they avoided a court martial for that somehow which, holy cow how high up is uncle Jack's pull to manage that one but he did and they did all this so she could come back to her old job after the baby and work at the same base still." He looked at Sammy. "I got that right so far?"

"Near enough."

"How high DID he have to go?"

She grinned and got a soft look to her eyes that told Jay Sammy had quite the crush on uncle Jack. "He asked the president."

"Wait what?!" Jay looked flabbergasted. "What did he do? Just wander into the oval office and say hey Hank, can I marry my coworker since I've already knocked her up?"

Sammy imagined that and started laughing. "Well, I wouldn't put it past him. Also he hates that name."

"Huh?"

"President Hayes. He doesn't like being called Hank."

"Um... how do you know that?"

"Jack talks to him pretty often."

"How often do you talk to uncle Jack?"

"Now and again. He sent aunt Sam over to intimidate the really mean charge nurse when Jon was hurt."

"You called Jon's uncle to intimidate a nurse at the hospital." He asked her incredulously.

"They wouldn't tell me what was going on, not even that he was out of surgery. Jack got it straightened out. He's very useful like that." She told him grinning smugly.

Jay gave her the side eye while Lynn just looked at her in shock. Sammy was just casually discussing the president being friendly with Jon's uncle like it was nothing and seeing no big deal that she could call on the man to get what she wanted. Who the hell are you Sammy Carter.

"Your aunt's name is Sam?" Lynn asked.

Eep. Back story! "I was named for her. She's not technically my aunt, it's just easier than explaining how she's related to me." Oh yah, explaining how we're related is just super easy Sammy thought to herself with some amusement.

"Oh. Yah. I've got aunts like that too. Some of them aren't even related."

"We are definitely related. But she's not my aunt aunt if that makes sense."

Lynn nodded as Jay pulled into Wil and Mare's driveway. "First floor, apparel, home dec, cosmetics." He announced in an elevator voice. The girls laughed.

"Do I owe you gas money Jay?'

"Nah. Wil paid me more than enough Monday. I'll see you guys tomorrow hey?"

"Ok." Sammy lunged over and hugged her lanky friend. "Tell your mom I said hi and don't tell her about my idea ok? I don't know if he'll go for it."

"Have Jon ask."

"Oh. Ha ha yah. He won't turn down Jon will he." She grinned

"Later ladies." He said as he backed out of the driveway.

They waved while Sammy poked in the garage door code. "Jon should be here a bit later. He said he had something to do after school."

"'s cool. Nice house."

"I love it. Uncle Wil was stationed here a long time so they've had time to make it really homey.

"You have a lot of military people in your life." Lynn observed.

Sammy shrugged. Once upon a time that was all she'd had.

"Was that story true? About your aunt and uncle?"

"More or less. They loved each other for a really long time but she was in his chain of command so they didn't do anything about it until they were in a better position to do so."

"Well clearly they were doing something about it because she got pregnant." Lynn observed.

Sammy looked at her thoughtfully and made a decision. "Aunt Sam is great but she's got a terrible track record with guys. She and uncle Jack had this, oh I don't know, extremely bad day excuse for hooking up so she wouldn't get involved with randoms after her first failed engagement but they both pretended it was just physical because if they got caught one or both of them would have been court marshaled and she'd have lost her job which she loves. So anyway, this went on for a really long time until there was an accident when she was somewhere for work, don't ask because it's classified. She panicked and thought she should stop treating him like some kind of back up plan and actually try living her life."

"That's not unreasonable." Lynn said thoughtfully.

"Well she should have just talked to him about it instead of letting her brother hook her up with this guy he knew because Jack was just devastated and she broke his heart but he's Jack so he pretended for months that everything was just fine and he could live with her dating this other guy."

"That's so sad. He should have told her how he felt." Lynn said.

"You won't get an argument from me there because had he, lots of stuff never would have happened. Anyways, she keeps dating this shrub even though everyone clearly hates him and then he asked her to marry him. The thing is she didn't say yes right away because she was still in love with Jack and Jack should have told her THEN that he loved her but he's got this whole noble self sacrifice thing going on which is equally charming and annoying." Sammy huffed.

"Eventually though she realized it was literally the dumbest thing she'd ever done and she dumped him. You would think that would have been that but Jack is also king of putting both feet in his mouth at the same time so instead of them getting back together they had a huge fight instead and pretended they didn't know each other from Adam."

"Did they at least try make up sex?" Lynn asked laughing a bit.

"I'm pretty sure it was after the makeup sex which was why after that they just acted like super civil coworkers and barely talked for about a month. Then they get stuck on this diplomatic thing together and have to share a suite because the country they went to for whatever reason thought putting the whole team in one set of rooms was just easier for security reasons."

"I see where this is going." Lynn said grinning.

"Yup. They were trying so hard to pretend they weren't pissed at each other that they both got kind of drunk without noticing it and ended up sleeping together again. So they decide ok I guess I'm not THAT mad at you but when they got back he had to go to Washington and she had to travel for work too so it was a few weeks before they were even in the same room again."

"Were they back on speaking terms at least?

"Oh yah, they had talked that part out shortly after it happened but she got back from one of her assignments and the CMO told her she was grounded because she was pregnant and it was the weirdest timing as he'd just gotten in and was there for his physical too."

"Why would they need check ups after travel?"

"They work with a lot of stuff that they have to be careful not to contaminate so they have regular blood work done. So right as she finds out she's pregnant he pops in and asks her what's wrong."

"Dun, dun, Duuunnnn…" Lynn said dramatically.

"Exactly, so now they are both in panic mode because what if someone finds out it's his kid. They come up with this goofy story that she had a one night stand with a guy from a bar and then Jack because he doesn't like paperwork uses an excuse to go see Hayes to get him to let Jack marry my aunt because her job is dangerous and he doesn't want her kid to grow up without parents if something were to happen to her."

"You're right, he is kind of clever."

"I don't think the president bought it frankly but he really likes Jack and was more than willing to just look the other way and let them get married because literally everyone could see how they felt about each other."

"This could be a romance novel you know."

Sammy laughed. "So now you know as much of the story as I know myself." Within reason she thought.

They walked into the house to the sight of Mary making quick work of a head of cabbage. "Hi girls. Dinner is in about half an hour. Jon says he's on his way, he got a bit tied up."

Lynn looked at Sammy. "He calls your mom first?"

Sammy smiled and shrugged. "He knew she was home. Did he say what was holding him up?" she asked Mary.

"Have you tried getting information out of that boy he doesn't volunteer?" Mary asked pointedly.

Sammy bit her lip trying not to laugh.

"I see you've met." Mary said with a grin. "Now, do me a favor, grab three cans of biscuits out of the fridge and then go find something to do for half an hour. I've got this handled."

"Yes ma'am" Sammy said and followed orders. They headed up to Sammy's room after having been dismissed by Mary. Sammy threw her purse on her desk next to her lap top.

"You have your own computer?" Lynn asked her in interest.

"Yah. Aunt Mary's is for work and has classified stuff on it and uncle Wil's is set up mostly for playing computer games so they bought me my own for school."

"I have to use my mom's. Mostly she does it so she can spy on me like I'd do anything interesting. I don't even know our internet password."

"Jay's dad is kind of difficult too. He doesn't spy on him but he bounces between being super controlling and totally ignoring him entirely. I don't like him honestly and I've only met him once."

"Among other things my mom is just way too invested in why I'm not popular even though she's pretty much the reason I wasn't as a kid. She was the mom that would demand you invite only the popular kids over then act shitty towards me in front of them like she had something to prove." Lynn said sourly as she sat on Sammy's bed. "I really like your room. It's so pretty."

Sammy grinned. "Aunt Mary decorated it before I moved in and told me that if I didn't like it I could change anything I wanted but she did such a nice job that I left it as is."

"She has good taste, but I really like flowers and stuff and purple is one of my favorite colors. My mom won't let me redecorate my room. Apparently it's 'just fine' the way it is." Her eyes fell on the drawing across from Sammy's bed. "Wow." Was all she could say.

Sammy looked up from her text book she'd pulled out. A slow smile full of love filled her face. "Jon drew that. It's from Jack and Aunt Sam's wedding."

"He's really good." Lynn said with awe.

"I've been telling him that for years." She grinned. "That's Cassie, their god daughter and Daniel and Jonas and T. Friends of theirs that are more family than family. Aunt Sam has a brother but this is their team. They do almost everything together. Jonas had to go home though so they won't see as much of him. You should see the one he did of just Jack and Sam. I took a photo of it before he framed it. Hang on, it's on my computer."

Lynn continued to study the drawing. These were people who clearly loved and trusted each other by their easy body language and unguarded smiles at each other. She wished very much that she had that.

"Here it is." Sammy said and turned the laptop screen to Lynn.

"Holy cow Jon drew that?"

"Yup." Sammy told her proudly.

Lynn leaned in for a closer look. The happy couple was looking at each other, his hand was cupping her face as though he was turning to kiss her and the depth of love they felt for each other was so apparent it was clear Jon knew both the people in the photo to capture it so clearly. He had on a grey suit and her dress was just barely the palest blue and floated around her like gossamer. The background was blue and shimmery as though they stood in front of the ocean.

"Did they get married on the beach?"

"Nope. His cabin in Minnesota. Why?"

"Just wondered about the background."

"Oh. Jon just likes blue a lot." She said biting back a chuckle. He'd insinuated an activated wormhole behind Jack and Sam. She guessed it was no worse than Jack putting the dialing sequence for earth on his pottery or Sam giving her a lambda charm. She flopped on the bed. "Any time you want to borrow my computer while you're over here feel free." She told her.

Lynn cocked her head. "I don't want you doing stuff because you feel sorry for me."

"She doesn't." The girls looked up to see Jon leaning in Sammy's door frame, one ankle crossed over the other.

"Jon." Sammy said and gave him a huge unguarded smile that had him swallow involuntarily.

Lynn watched him and knew in that moment without a doubt that no matter what Sammy said, Jon loved her whole heartedly. She looked back at the laptop where the picture was still open. "You look exactly like him." She finally said.

"Everyone tells me I'm his clone." Lynn laughed but Sammy gave him a dirty look. "What. They do." He grinned and winked at her. Hide in plain sight he thought and you won't get caught in a lie. Sammy shook her head and laughed. "Aunt Mare says dinner is ready so wash your hands and quit drooling on uncle Jack. He's a married guy for cryin out loud."

Sam followed Lynn out of the room after telling her the bathroom was down the hall on the left and whispered in Jon's ear on her way by. "Mik'ta"

"Sim'ka shel nok mekta time." He whispered back.

"Tel kol?" she said laughing.

"Quell shek." He begged

"I'll think about it." She said softly and kissed his cheek.

He grinned and barely stopped himself from grabbing her into a hug. "I'm just going to keep asking you know." He called after her as she headed down the hall.

"I know." She called back laughing.

**_AN2:_**_ Mik'ta means 'ass'. Jack asks her 'marry me my love'. Her reply is 'pardon?' his plea is 'please'. And there's your lesson on Gao'uld for the day._

_This was totally supposed to end entirely different but I have next to no control over their behavior and they just do what they want. The very young do not always do as they are told._


	3. Taqtaq – Patter

_**AN: **__Last chapter of this interlude. Jon and Sammy will be back in a HUGE crossover with the rest of the __**FATE**__ story line then diverge again to their own lives more or less. Glad everyone enjoyed this one. Please don't be mad if there is a long delay, the big story is over 10 chapters already and I'm not sure how much longer. I always finish what I'm writing before I post now so there might be a delay as it has at least 4 chapters to go and I can only type about 3000 words a day or so. That's about two chapters for reference. I have some little side stuff to keep everyone happy to post during the delay but it's not Jon and Sammy._

**Taqtaq – Patter**

All three kids came down stairs together and found spots around the table. Wil rolled his eyes when Jon sat down next to Sammy and gave him an I dare you to say something look. He wasn't being sucked into Jack O'Neill's high school antics even if this particular Jack O'Neill was actually in high school. Conversations with the original version were insane enough.

"How was your day Jon?" he asked the boy.

"Not bad. Aced my physics test this morning."

"Good. You Sammy?"

"All right I guess. Not much interesting happened." She said around a bit of sausage. Lynn snorted which made Sammy giggle.

"Anything you ladies wish to share?" Wil asked in amusement.

"Jay got detention." Sammy finally told him giggling.

"Oh for cryin out loud what for now?" Jon demanded.

Wil about choked on his tongue. Sometimes Jon was so obviously Jack it was comical. Jon shot him a look and Wil looked back at the boy blandly.

Sammy couldn't help but laugh at them. Uncle Wil had always acted long suffering when dealing with Jack's behavior when he had to assign marines to SG units. Possibly because Jack was usually busy acting scatterbrained. "Apparently… He decided to screw with one of Karen's clones and spilled paint on her accidently on purpose. Probably ruined her outfit too." She snickered.

"Which one?"

"No idea. He wouldn't tell us and besides, I don't know any of their names. I just gave them Karen numbers with eye or height designations as they all look and act exactly like her."

"How did he get off with just detention for that?" Mary asked.

"He didn't say but it's Jay so I'm betting he just paid for the cleaning fees."

"Not like he can't afford it." Jon mused.

"How was your day Lynn?" Wil asked her.

"Mine?" she asked, her face showing some surprise at being addressed at the table.

Wil pointed at his wife. "Her name is Mary." He pointed at Sam. "That's Sammy. Narrows things down that you are Lynn." He grinned at her.

"Ah." Lynn laughed nervously. "Ok I guess. One of my teacher's got his wife pregnant again."

"How many kids is he on?" Wil asked her.

Lynn turned to Sammy. "Four?"

"At least four. I'll ask Brian. He'll know." She said affably and watched Lynn's ears turn a little pink. Oh well that's interesting she thought and nudged Jon who also noted Lynn's reaction to bringing up Brian and grinned a little. "How was your day uncle Wil?"

"Yes dear how WAS your day?" Mary asked him archly and all three teens turned and looked at Wilson in interest.

"It was fine." He told them defensively. "How was yours." He narrowed his eyes at his wife and Jon and Sammy looked at each other and smirked.

"I asked you first." Mary said pleasantly. She winked at Sammy.

Wil scowled. "I might have fallen off the roof clearing the weight off the balcony in the back." He muttered.

"You what?" Sammy laughed hysterically. "Are you ok uncle Wil?" she really was concerned but he clearly was fine.

"Landed in the iris bed." He grumped.

Jon smirked. "At least it wasn't the roses. Why were you on the roof part when you could have just shoved it from the balcony?"

"It seemed like a good idea at the time." Wil admitted and Mary cracked up.

"He said that to me the first time I got pregnant." Mary said chuckling.

"So, Lynn, I hear you have art class with Jon." Wil said at an attempt of drawing everyone's attention away from his inglorious decent into the snow pile on his beloved iris bed.

"Ah, yah. I kind of didn't notice until Sammy introduced me to him that we had honors art together."

"She's really good." Jon added.

Lynn shrugged. "I'm all right at it. It's not like it's a useful skill like Sam being good at science."

"On the contrary, Greg makes a good living as a commercial artist." Wil told her.

"Greg?"

"Our oldest. He's the one that painted the portraits on the stairwell." Mary told her and bit into some fried cabbage. "Works for some big video game company designing sleeves."

Jon just looked at her.

"What. I'm hip. I know the terminology."

"You said hip." Wil pointed out.

"You almost broke yours today."

"Fair point." He admitted and everyone chuckled together.

"Hey Sam, do you mind if I drive you to piano practice from now on?" Jon asked her.

"Huh? Why, it's only a couple blocks."

"I know but it's been really cold. I don't want you to catch that flu that's going around."

"That's very thoughtful of you Jon." Mary told him but looked at him hard as though she was trying to figure out what he wasn't saying.

"Did I miss something?" Lynn asked.

"Has she Jon?" Mary prompted him.

"Oh, um, no. Not really." He hedged and looked at Sam. A glint in his eyes. She knew why and he really wanted her to admit it so he didn't have to tell them.

Sam gave him her best 'who me' look.

"Something you two need to discuss with us?" Wil prompted around a mouthful of sausage and peppers.

Sammy glared at Jon. "I don't have any idea what his issue is. Mrs. Snyder is two blocks from school. Not much can happen in two blocks."

"Right." Jon said with a scowl and went back to eating. He and Sammy glared at each other in challenge.

Wil quirked his mouth up to the side in a 'well then' sort of expression.

"Don't mind them." Mary told Lynn. "They bicker for entertainment sometimes. What kind of art do you like doing?"

Lynn looked at Mary surprised. "Well, I like to draw and I want to try pottery."

"Jon's uncle is a potter. He made that vase." She said pointing at the blue pitcher that currently had a place of honor on the kitchen island and held a mix of hothouse flowers in a rainbow of colors.

She looked at Jon then at the vase again. "He's really good. Being artistic must run in the family."

Sammy snorted in amusement and put her head down covering her mouth. Wil stuck his tongue in his cheek.

"Did I say something funny?"

"I'll tell you some day." Sammy told her. "But yes he IS very artistic and yes it DOES run in the family."

"Speaking of family how is Jack?" Wil asked Jon.

"Great. Walks around with a big goofy grin on his face all the time now. Gracie is super cute."

"You got to see Gracie today? You suck." Sammy told him and punched his arm. "You should have told me that's what you were doing. I want to see her too."

"You have photos from the morning she as born."

"It's not the same and you know it."

"Yah yah. Cry me a river Carter." He told her and stuck out his tongue.

"Are you two going to squabble all through dinner?" Mary asked them tiredly.

Sammy pouted. "Possibly."

"You ok Lynn?" Jon asked her. She was looking a bit walleyed.

"Yah. It's just, well, my family really doesn't talk at the dinner table and if my sister and I bickered in front of my mom I'd be in huge trouble."

"Just you?" Wil asked innocently.

She took a gulp of her glass of milk. "Yah. Just me. My sister is perfect in every possible way."

Mary looked at Sammy who made a 'no' face to suggest Lynn's sister was far from perfect.

"In this house everyone has a voice including guests and teenagers." Wil told her. "Some of them don't shut up." He said looking at Sammy who stuck her tongue out at him while Mary and Jon laughed.


End file.
